The Whole World Depends On Us

If there is any evil happening in the world, it means that we are still unable to bring correction to the world. If people are still waging wars, destruction, and terrorism, scorn one another, lie to another, and try to profiteer of each other by any means, it means that we are failing to correct the world.

If the Light shone more, none of this could happen. People would be unable to behave this way and nature on the still, vegetative, and animate levels would not give us these unpleasant “surprises.”

We exist inside the all-inclusive nature, but our balance with it depends on us, on man’s level. That is why we have to build an enormous spiritual vessel (Kli) among those studying Kabbalah. We have to unite with a strong connection so people all over the world will feel this power and be compelled to unite with each other.

That is how it happens. After all, where do all the different thoughts and desires come to us from? We don’t know about it, but they emerge from within and pass from one to another along the net of connection among us.

We are living at a special time. Baal HaSulam writes that we have to be very grateful to the Creator for living in a generation that has received the opportunity to disseminate the science of Kabbalah, which has reached us from antiquity.

We are the first generation that is able to use this science and attain eternity, to rise above this entire life, to come out of the boundaries of all the earthly limitations and enter a new dimension, the spiritual world.

From the 6th lesson at the World Zohar Convention 5/9/10

Tied Into The Entire World

Question: We are now in something like an interim period, idle time, between conventions. How can we strengthen the mutual guarantee to move forward?

Answer: You need constant work. What is the difference whether we hold a convention now or not? A person does not know when he gains the required measure of effort. He has to yearn every new day in his life in anticipation of the moment when he will able to perform bestowal to friends, and through them, to the entire world, and through it, to the Creator.

I have to analyze my inner states, what my thoughts and intentions are, to what extent during the day I try to reveal the goal, whether my heart is imbued with this aspiration, whether it wakes up, whether I can commit myself to this, and whether I can hold this thought against the background of all other actions, whatever I do. From this, I can see how much I have moved forward.

We have only one possibility to reach the spiritual world: by constantly working on our desires and increasingly bringing them closer to the feeling and our understanding of bestowal. Changes should happen within us, in our desires. Therefore, every moment that is dedicated to this advances us along the path.

Then, everything depends on the person. In his opinion, what kind of movement forward should it be: individual or worldwide? If he wants to reach the goal of creation, this movement is possible only on a global scale. Everything below this benchmark does not work nowadays.

In the past, the group or the teacher was enough, but today, we are tied into the whole world. The one whose actions, day after day, move our world group and the entire world toward correction at least in some way can see that this stimulates him and his own progress. In essence, individual progress is an investment into others.

Besides, you should try every day to add some quality to what you give to others in your correspondence, blogs, and internet projects. We can bestow to friends only when we merge with them, when we understand them, rather than try to foist onto them something that we like. In addressing people, we should hand out, disseminate, that which is as close to them as possible. We should “clothe” in them.

Love is when I take the other person’s desire and fill it according to what he or she wants. Otherwise, we will not be able to approach anybody.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/21/2011, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

How To Stop Thinking About Myself, Part 1

All of Israel are responsible for one another (Sanhedrin, 27b,Shavuot 39).

1. The key is to keep in mind that between us (the souls) there is an eternal system of connection. Initially we are unified, and each of us is indebted to the other. There is no freedom in this, because we areinitially interconnected and interdependent. Moreover, this holds true not only for Israel, but for the entire world.

2. If we wish to ascend to the spiritual degree of the revelation of the Creator, we must learn the law of connection working in this network and implement it.

3. “Israel” is a small group that decided to learn the law of connection by having aimed straight to the Creator. The name “Yisrael” means “Yashar-El” or directly to the Creator. InAbraham’s time, it was a group of Babylonians who left the general mainstream of development, by separating and distancing themselves from its ideological views.

Today it is not the nation of Israel, but a part of humanity (the modern Babylon) reaching the same decision. Ultimately, all of humanity will join this goal.

4. The main rule in attaining the Creator is the condition of mutual group guarantee(Arvut). We must truly agree to meet it by way of the process called “We shall do, and we shall hear.” We will do everything in our power to do, and consequently, we will “hear” or reach the state of guarantee.

Having met this condition, we uncover the correct connection between us all and become “as one man with one heart.” Finally, the Torah, the method of correction of human nature (egoism), becomes revealed to us.

5. Essentially, Arvut (mutual guarantee) is a very simple thing: I receive from the influence of the group such a strong feeling of certainty and security that I stop thinking about myself completely. If I were a king, I would have money, healers, and an army at my disposal, but none of it would give me such assurance. However, thanks to the total interconnectedness of souls, a person’s desire is assured to be fulfilled and at rest if everyone is thinking about its fulfillment.

6. Wealth and power are useless here; besides, the fellow-guarantors do not have anything to fill me with. And yet, with the collective thought and caring, the friends will open the channels for the Light, and it will flow to me through them.

My soul’s desire will feel satiated; it will stop fearing emptiness and demanding fulfillment, giving me an opportunity to rise above it and to start bestowing to the others without thinking about myself. Hence, aspiring to the Creator is a required pre-condition, and aspiring to the friends is needed as the condition for attaining the Creator.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/8/10, “The Arvut”

Wisdom Comes With Experience

Only one desire exists; only it had been created and then began to develop. It is not divided into levels or parts: It is divided by the states of awareness of itself. All the time, I reveal the first state more and more.

The spark of Light created the point of darkness, and creation was over. Now, this point of darkness, the point of desire, begins to discover: Who am I, who created me and with what purpose, what should I do, and what do I want from the Light and from myself? It keeps digging into itself and clarifies, learns more about itself and through self-realization, discovers the Light that created it.

There is nothing else in the entire universe except the creature who learns more about the Creator. But the reality does not change. The Light filled the desire, and now the desire perceives this single state more deeply.

All the changes occur only in consciousness, sensation, reaction, but inside the same substance. That is why I feel a little bit in my very first state; I only begin to sense myself existing in it, as if I am waking up. This is called the Light of Nefesh in my desire, existing at the zero level (Shoresh or root).

Now, I start to wake up more and look around. What I see at this degree, next to me, is not familiar to me yet; hence, I perceive this in the Light of Nefesh. But I already realize my previous state from which I woke up; I understand that I was asleep and now I have woken up.

How do I know that I was asleep? I learned about that because I woke up, found out about the next state, and now understand the previous one better. Therefore, the Light ofRuach clothes in the previous state, although I have only the Light of Nefesh in the current state.

I will never have anything more than the Light of Nefesh at the most advanced state. Only all the previous states become more and more clarified. That is why a person who advances correctly will always feel like in a fog, confusion, and misunderstandings; he will face incomprehensible forces and calculations and will always have doubts.

However, he already understands more about the path he has covered, all his history, and looking back on this history, the future perspective as well. That is, on one hand, he is accompanied by confusion, fog, and helplessness, but at the same time, he becomes smarter about the past, by seeing the whole path, its causes and consequences, and thereby revealing the Creator.

This is called the “reverse order” of the Light and desire. Our desire develops more and more and becomes “smarter,” educated, specific, high, and closer to the Creator, but only the Light of Nefesh is felt in it. However, in the previous desires, which we perceive deeper as we advance, we feel the Light of NaRaNHaY (Nefesh-Ruach-Neshama-Haya-Yechida). As it is said: “Wisdom comes only with experience.”
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/13/2011, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

The Result Of The Lesson

Question: In his article “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee),” Baal HaSulam writes that we have to act without any payment, without any compensation, and without any admixture of self-love. How can we cleanse ourselves from the expectations of reward, of good results?

Answer: You have the tools: the Kabbalistic method called the Torah and the group. If you want to unite with the entire group and build a future world in it as a proper example for everyone, do this.

How can you unite? You can unite through the Torah. The Light in it reforms. Everyone should feel how much he is disconnected or connected with others. Each must try to check all the time whether he gives an impulse to connect.

Finally, our aspiration is necessary during studying. Where is the prayer during the lesson? Where is the prayer that motivates you to unite?

There is a common network, however, its threads are cut off, and we have to reconnect them. We come to the lesson to study the broken ties between us and to understand how to weave them back together. These are the results that we should expect from the lesson. Are we expecting them?
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/18/2011, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarante)”

Don’t Rush To Be An Angel

Question: I think that I have already torn myself away from my ego. What do I do next?

Answer: You cannot tear yourself away from the ego. It is a great and lengthy work that continues through all the degrees of your spiritual ascent. This is because the higher you ascend along the degrees of the spiritual worlds, the more your ego grows.

You are presently in a state where, indeed, you barely feel the ego at your current degree. What can you do about that? I think that you don’t study enough. If you study more, together with us and more intensively, your ego will have no choice but to grow quickly.

The growth of the ego depends on whether or not you have the tools to work with it. If you’re connected to the group, to dissemination, to our lessons, and to my blog, then your ego will grow every second, and you won’t be able to escape it. You will discover that it’s terrorizing you, and then you will be able to work with it. However, if you’re weak, you will not be given this kind of ego, and you will sit there peacefully and think that you’re already an angel.

In reality, this cannot be. If you don’t feel the blows of the ego every second that arise in us so that we could correct them, all that it means is that you’re not yet sufficiently connected with the group and the study.
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From the Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 7/17/2011

"We Shall Do And We Shall Hear"

A question I received: Why is man given too much intelligence from Above? As a result, his reasoning outweighs and rejects his actions, stripping him of an opportunity to advance?

My Answer: People receive so much intelligence in order not to be animals. An animal has just enough intelligence as it needs for life and it doesn’t make mistakes. We are given excess intelligence so that we would make mistakes, build plans for the future, have egoistic intentions and along with them, the intelligence to aspire to a higher degree, to develop, and to suffer. After all, suffering pushes us ahead.

An additional desire, a point in the heart, awakens in a person and rouses dissatisfaction in him: "Who am I? What am I living for? What is life? What is death?" An animal doesn’t ask about these things. You don’t complain about being given all these questions instead of just living peacefully as does an animal, do you?

Too much intelligence isn’t a problem. The problem occurs if a person allows his corporeal mind to control him and stop him from acting. If an action isn’t coordinated with the mind, the mind wins and stops the action.

We need to tune into the group, to build good relationships there, and to "buy ourselves a friend." This is called action, as it is written, "We shall do and [then] we shall hear." This means that we’ll reach the degree of Bina. After all, through the action, we draw the Light of correction from Bina. It influences us and gives us its quality of bestowal. However, if the mind stops a person from acting, then the person can’t change.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/14/10, Article, “Make Yourself a Rav and Buy Yourself a Friend – 2”

The Current Of Bestowal

Question: What is the real sensation of the Light?

Answer: I don’t have anything to give to another person, but when I really want to give him something, then inside of me, in my attitude to him, in the aspiration to bestow and love, a special “current” becomes revealed which is called “Light.”

In order to perceive any external phenomenon, it is necessary to reach equivalence with it. Like a radio that is tuned to a specific wave, I generate the wave, the quality that is outside of me. Inside of me I create an example or model of the quality of bestowal that is outside. And then I catch and perceive this quality.

If I truly want to relate to another person by the law of bestowal, then suddenly, in my attitude to him, I develop a certain fulfillment that seems to come from outside, although in reality it floats to the surface from within. This response that I felt in my aspiration to bestowal is the Light.
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/20/11, “Arvut”

Sculpt A Human Out Of Yourself

Question: We are talking about loving the neighbor as yourself. But how is it possible to see the friends as being above you when you are sure and you clearly see that you are better than them?

Answer: Every person is sure that he is better than others. Even if he does not realize it, this is so in any case. There’s no doubt that every person considers himself better than others, thinking that he understands more and is more corrected.

This is how the force of the breaking is revealed between us, forcing every person to consider himself higher than others. A person forgets that he is in the hands of theCreator as formless, inanimate material, like a piece of clay, and that everything in him, in his desires and thoughts, comes to him from the Creator.

The only thing that can be expressed in this material as its personal action is the aspiration to connect with the “neighbor.” In that case, this formless mass takes on the “Human” form—a form that is similar to the Creator.

Only that kind of aspiration to be similar to the Creator can exist inside of the “clay” as its own aspiration. When does it become personal, on what condition? On the condition that this “clump of clay” acts in order to unite with all the other “clumps” into a special form, called “Human”—into the form of mutual bestowal, where all of them, wishing to sculpt a Human out of themselves, take on its form—a certain part of the common sculpture.

And besides this, everything that awakens in them and between them was given to them from above, according to the conditions and problems that they have to resolve. Therefore, everything that happens in the present and that will happen in the future is given from above. And only one small influence is possible on the part of the material—gradually, by uniting with others like it, to take on the form of the Creator, to become “Human.”
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/20/11, The Zohar

The Matrix Of Our Reality

Because the science of Kabbalah only talks about what exists inside of us, it is called the inner Torah, an inner wisdom. In reality, our bodies and all of this matter do not exist. Therefore, this world is called an imaginary world. As soon as we begin to perceive reality correctly, we begin to feel that all this exists only in desire. Our desire gives us various levels of sensation that exist as the inanimate nature, plants, animals, and human beings. However, all this is actually different phenomena within the desire.

We need to realize that we live within a matrix of sensation in which everything exists exclusively in our sensation. This means that there is the desire to receive pleasure which perceives the phenomena that occur in it. Therefore, it is important for us not to forget this since this approach to the perception of reality, that “everything depends on me, rather than on what is outside,” directs us to our inner correction.

We perceive ourselves in our desires on the background of white Upper Light. Everything is on the background of the Upper Light. The World of Infinity is merely the white Upper Light. We don’t see ourselves there because we reach the same state, perception, reality, and qualities as the Light.

Meanwhile, the 125 degrees by which we descended from this state are the degrees of greater and greater distancing from the white Light, on the background of which we see ourselves. Therefore, everything we see around us is our desire which includes the inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human levels. These are the 4 levels of Aviut(coarseness of desire) in all its various inner forms, and which are the measures of our difference from the white Light.

These pictures are in fact our reality which presents itself to us in the form of this world. Thus our constant effort to reveal true reality, to unite with the true picture of reality, forces us to correct and perfect ourselves; and in doing so to see that we are all connected together.

The more we unite with each other and tune into the white Light, we advance toward our eternal and perfect life in the World of Infinity. And all these phenomena which we see and perceive to be outside pass like a dream. In actuality, we live only inside white Light.

This fundamental point in the science of Kabbalah is extremely important, since it separates the science of Kabbalah from all the philosophical teachings, religions, faiths, and different methods. The science of Kabbalah tells a person that he needs to correct only his desire, to make it similar to the white Light. No physical external actions have anything to do with it.

Perception Of Reality: From Newton To Kabbalah

We live in a fairly confusing world. And people ask themselves about where they live, where they exist. Generally, we did not ask these questions over the course of thousands of years. We thought that the world we live in is this world. This conception is called the “perception of the world according to Newton.”

Then, as we advanced in our study of nature, we discovered that other beings, which are different from humans, perceive the world in other ways: Snakes perceive it in the form of heat spots; dogs perceive it as a cloud of smells; bees perceive it divided into many sectors, and so on. In other words, every being perceives the world in different ways and is guided according to its sensations. And this does not prevent us from existing in one dimension, where we all perceive the world in absolutely different ways.

Then a different paradigm came about. Einstein came and proved that everything is relative: time, space, movement, and there is nothing absolute. In other words, ourperception of reality is just our habits, and we could perceive it in a completely different way.

If we were to move at a very fast speed, if we were to orbit around large celestial masses, time and space would become deformed, and we would feel, see, and perceive ourselves in absolutely different ways. This is perception of reality according to Einstein, which is the theory of relativity: Everything is relative to man. The next scientist, Hugh Everett, proved that the world which we perceive in relation to us, that is, which depends on us practically does not exist; we build it in our sensations.

And then the wisdom of Kabbalah appeared, which was concealed for almost 6,000 years, and it was always written in its books that neither we nor the world exist as we perceive it; everything is only relative to our senses. If we were to change our senses, the world would change.

In other words, according to Einstein’s theory there is an observer and the object of observation. According to Hugh Everett’s theory there are an object and an observer, both of which constantly change, and we are able to perceive something average between them. But we can also even perceive on demand, according to our inner qualities. This is what Kabbalah speaks about.

Why do we need all this knowledge? We need it so we could finally understand where we live, the world we exist in. Films like “The Matrix” and “What the Bleep Do We Know!?” appear, which convey assumptions and ideas that the dimension that we perceive through our physical senses is not the dimension we live in.

We have vision, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. We perceive whatever falls within the scope of these five senses. Our image of the world is based on this.

But if we were to begin to disengage these senses, the image of the world would begin to decrease and disappear. In other words, what we perceive is not what actually exists outside of us, but our reactions, our inner influences, the so called “disturbances” to things we do not understand.

But what world would we perceive if we were to free ourselves of our five senses? This is where Kabbalah comes in and tells us how we can rise above these five senses and begin to perceive the world as different, additional. We can begin to perceive nature, the world, the way it exists outside our bodies, outside our five senses, in addition to the world where we now exist in our bodies like any live organism.

We have a rudiment of this perception, the so called “point in the heart.” This is neither a heart nor a point in it. This simply is a name for a rudimentary and dormant sense that we have. We can develop and use it to begin to perceive the world that we can imagine outside of our bodies.

So, Kabbalah speaks about the world that exists in reality outside of us, outside our five senses, outside the flow of information that enters us. This is why it is called “Kabbalah” ( “reception”), a guide to acquiring a real perception of the actual reality.
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From Public Lecture in Berlin 1/27/2011

New Rules Of A Global World

History shows that ultimately not a single dictator brought his nation anything good, but only suffering. Thereby they pushed the world toward development. Today, however, our state is completely different: We live in a global world.

Previously, the world existed due to the very top of the pyramid, the individual personalities endowed with unlimited sovereign power, and everything run according to their word. A few hundred years ago, such rulers were still able to make beneficial decisions. But today, in a global world, if someone tries to put into practice his personal opinion, he will only acknowledge his own ignorance.

It’s because in a global world, decisions cannot be made by a single ruler or government, or even by governments gathering together. Nothing will come out of it! One has to be familiar with the general system, while a president is not; he is a bigger egoist than anyone else (this is why he became a president in the first place).

Hence, not a single ruler or government will be successful: They will come to power, keep hold of it for a few years, and fall. This will happen throughout the world. We will see that governments will degenerate more and more. One day millions will come out onto the streets, as it is happening in Egypt now, and the government will collapse.

Why can’t the government defend itself, where is the army? Its glory days are over, it doesn’t work this way anymore because the world manifests as an integral, global system, and the people below no longer obediently accept everything that the ruler says from above.

Today the world operates based on different principles, while we do not acknowledge this yet. No rulers will help us, no matter who comes into power. In previous times, the rulers advanced the world through suffering, yet they nevertheless advanced it. For instance, Alexander the Great wanted to introduce Greek culture into the entire world and had scientists and advisers assist him. He had an entire program of what he wanted to do with the world. But today, advancement due to a ruler is no longer possible.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/11/2011, “The Freedom”

The Global System Of The Future Society

We want to build a global system that will serve as a new kind of connection for humanity. It will bring people into situations where they will discern that due to the laws of nature, it pays more to bestowand be close to others. Eventually people will come to experience everyone as one organism.

This will be a system of education that will make a person feel how, step by step, he is being taught about the laws and rules of the new society. These laws are derived from attainment of the general system of nature, of which we are part. Similarity to the main law, “love your neighbor,” is universal and primary. Everything else is a derivative from it. (See Baal HaSulam’s article, “One Law.”)

The connections that will develop within this system will turn it into a virtual state where people will bring a spiritual component into the virtual connection. Within this system people will begin to create connections among them that are inherent even in our mundane lives. From the new awareness of the right relationships, they will also begin creating the appropriate connections in business, family, and others.

Gradually, all forms of connection among people will develop within this system, until it comes to replace all the systems of egoistic connection. The latter is what appears to unite people today, although in reality it only separates people and puts them at odds with one another.

The nature, goal, and influence of the new system upon every person is completely different. It has to contain an intellect, an ability to learn and teach the people that use it, as well as to give advice to those who set it in motion. It also has to listen to their suggestions regarding which changes must be executed in the connection among people so they gradually advance to closer connections among each other, until reaching a connection that is above egoism.

Zero Can Be Infinite Too

Question: Why is it that after so many years of study we still ask about its purpose? It follows that we always start from the beginning, from zero?

Answer: No, each time we start from an even greater “zero”! Indeed, the egoistic desire is constantly growing, as does understanding. Our desires become sharper and more precise, and thus our “zero” becomes deeper and more defined.

Quarreling For The Sake Of Making Up

Question: What should I do if I am able to cancel myself in my thoughts, but it’s very difficult for me to do this in practice?

Answer: That’s impossible! If I really cancel myself in my thoughts, then I also do it in the actions. The action reflects the intention.

But if I still haven’t reached the final decision to cancel myself, then I am unable to carry out this action and am only lying to myself by thinking that I am cancelling myself in the thoughts.

If we see that after an argument a group does not come to unity, until the next quarrel, this is a sign that its members do not cancel each other before one another and don’t have any chance of attaining spirituality.

By conducting an inner self-analysis and trying to cancel our egoism before the friends, internally and externally, we already carry out the spiritual work. The spiritual world can become revealed to us practically only on the condition that we entirely cancel our egoism according to the level of our current degree.

If you now attain the true self-annulment in relation to any person, you will be convinced that you feel yourself in the spiritual reality, in the quality of bestowal, united with the Creator to a certain extent!
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/17/11, Writings of Rabash

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